Skelos calls session for 2 p.m. Tuesday

The governor’s proclamation calls a special session for 3 p.m. So why would Republican Leader Dean Skelos call for a 2 p.m. session that will have only 31 members on the floor?

“Because we can have our regular session,” said Skelos.

You can do a lot in an hour, especially if Senate Secretary Angelo Aponte decides to turn on the TV cameras and the microphones — something that hasn’t happened since June 8, to the GOP’s ever-increasing ire.

You can, for example, make sure Sen. George Winner has control of the chamber, and spend 60 minutes reprising the working-class rhetoric we’ve heard on the floor (“You don’t show up for work, you don’t get paid”) for almost two weeks.

If this is meant as a provocation to the Democrats, they have so far refused to take the bait. “The governor has called a special session for 3 p.m.,” said Austin Shafran, spokesman for Malcom Smith. “We’re still in talks with the Republicans negotiating a bipartisan agreement.”